Holiday Greetings To All

Winter has finally found us in Nevada. It began to snow last Tuesday and continued to Friday. I need to clarify to those who live in an area where it really snows. What this essentially means is that it will snow for an hour or two, then stop, then start and then stop, so on and so on. Saturday the sun did come out and when all was said and done we had maybe 3-4 inches. Before you all say that is nothing, let me further explain. While Nevada is enlightened in many ways, the concept of plowing has not made its way westward. It is one thing Andy does miss about NH. So what happens is everyone drives through the snow, compacting and melting it, to then have it freeze and be covered by more snow. In addition to the snow the night temp. has hovered around 0 to 10 most of the week. Gail has had a few choice words about this phenomenon. Hopefully, the picture is now becoming a bit more clear. Friday night we had a bit of a scare, but no one was hurt and there was no damage to the blessed Volvo.

The boys are "finally on vacation." This last week of school went fairly well. The boys had the standard Christmas (yes, it is actually called that here) party, with the mandatory junk food. Each is doing well and very excited about Christmas. Matthew attends a respite program on Saturday's and this weekend the place had a family party which we all enjoyed. Matthew made a beautify ginger house and snow flake decoration. Nikolas is just excited for a new snow board so he can tear it up on the slopes, at least that is what he tells us.

Last Sunday in church the local high school select choir came to sing a few songs and it was neat to hear them sing about the birth of the Savior. That evening we went to hear the local hand bell choir do its Christmas concert, which we all enjoyed. The concert ended with a candle light rendition of silent night. The hand bell choir also did a number accompanied by some instruments from Africa, which was really neat.

The one down side about this week was that Gail came down with a leg infection on Sunday evening, so she was out of commission for the good part of Monday and Tuesday. Andy's schedule was such that he was able to help out with the boys Monday and by Tuesday, Gail was well enough to at least get the boy's to school. Her doctor tried a new form of treatment and it seems to be working quite well. Thanks to Gail the Christmas shopping is done and soon our annual letter should go out.

Andy was very busy this week. He had a few bench trials, several detention hearings, about 8 juvenile intake hearings and a juvenile extradition hearing. Friday he was in an all day preliminary hearing and bail revocation hearing. Needless to say he was quite tired by Friday evening. Thankfully, the next two weeks should be a bit lighter and we are all looking forward to having 5 days to spend together over Christmas.

That about sums up the news from Northeast Nevada. We hope all are well and have a Merry Christmas. Please take time this week to reflect upon the many blessings we enjoy and the source of those things. We as a family are extremely grateful to all our friends and family and wish you all the very best. Merry Christmas